In our world, many people are becoming displaced. Music helps. Not that it solves problems. But it does sometimes reconcile and cross boundaries. The title In Terra Aliena refers to that experience. In 1492, Columbus arrived in America and the Spanish expelled the Muslims from Granada. Jews left Spain or were forced to convert to Christianity. Sailors embarked, never to return. Hence that theme of
… "in terra aliena" (on foreign soil) in poetry of the time. The mostly anonymous Spanish and Portuguese music expresses melancholy. Consequently, this album does not have the exuberance of the Latin American albums by Ex Cathedra on the Hyperon label. The beauty and expression is no less so. Listen, for example, to the anonymous Cómo puedo yo vivir, which only needs two voices. The music is led by guitarist and conductor Adrián Rodríguez Van der Spoel. He grew up in Argentina. His mother is Argentinean and his father Dutch. In the late 1980s, Rodríguez van der Spoel landed in the Netherlands to study choral conducting. The music of Latin America has his attention. And then both Renaissance and Baroque music and South American folk music. During the 2024 Utrecht Early Music Festival, Rodríguez Van der Spoel was artist in residence. (HJ)more
